Meet The Candidate - Blaine Breshears

Article |
16 October, 2010 - 18:59

Article Date:

30 July, 2010 - 06:00

Blaine Breshears is a long time Morgan resident. His family moved from West Valley to Morgan in 1979. Breshears attended school in Morgan and graduated from Morgan High in 1987.
He decided to enter law enforcement after a friend allowed him to participate in a ride along. It was a great experience and motivated him to point his career in that direction. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When he returned he married a local girl from Morgan. They determined to make Morgan County their home. They now have five children.
Breshears attended the Weber State University police academy, graduated, and worked for the Weber State University police for two years. After this experience he joined the Morgan County Sheriff’s department. He came back to Morgan to help it stay the community he loves. He says, “I wanted the community to stay the best community it possible could. My hope was to keep it the community I grew up in. The community that you would be able to leave your cars unlocked, and your homes unlocked.”
Breshears served as an officer for several years. He was then promoted to corporal and to sergeant. He supervised a team of eight deputies in these leadership roles. He also participated in the budgeting process for the Sheriff’s office and helped manage the assets of the Sheriffs office. Breshears served as the Field Training Officer for the Morgan County Sheriffs Office. In this role he provided training to the deputies that serve in the county. He has served as the liaison with the Search and Rescue. This has given him experience in working with the volunteer citizens who serve in this organization.
Five years ago Breshears had the opportunity to become the School Resource officer. He says, “I saw an opportunity to help the youth…to hopefully influence them for the positive. I have been there five years. I have also taught the DARE program…It’s very rewarding to be able see the kids in the community and have a relationship with them.”
As he begins his bid for the position of Sheriff, he can now see the opportunity to extend this help beyond the youth to the entire community. He sees the value in community policing. He believes the officers need to build good working relationships with the citizens. These relationships help the citizens feel comfortable to share issues with the officers upon which that the Sheriffs department should take action. It also creates more visibility of policing efforts in the community.
Breshears sees challenges in the growth of Morgan County. The economic challenges have made it more difficult to retain officers. He believes he can create an environment in which the county will be better able to retain the officers.
Breshears believes that one of the strengths he brings to the position of sheriff is the relationship he has developed in the community. His time in the community as he grew up and as he has served as an officer have made him well known.
He has volunteered in many organizations including Morgan Empowered. His work in this organization and in the schools have developed good relationships with the students which Breshears also sees as a key asset.
Even though Breshears has been presented with other career opportunities over the years, he has continued to work and serve in Morgan. He is dedicated to the community and wants to do everything he can do to keep it strong and safe.